Won't Ever Understand Me
by RaliNeoBlade
Summary: Pan started withdrawing from the world a long time ago, and now her heart is shrouded in ice, but only recently are her friends and family noticing. Vegeta has always known. He gives her advice that will completely change her life. Ch. 6 is up!
1. What's Up With Pan?

Won't Ever Understand Me  
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Disclaimer: YES! I DO own Dragonball Z! It's all mine! Trunks, Gohan, Goten, ALL of it!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! ::sweatdrop:: Or not. I'm not making any money off of this since I don't own DB, DBZ, or DBGT, so please don't sue me. However, I do own any original characters that come up in this story. And I own this story. So don't copy me.  
A/N: OK, I know I got the ages screwed up, but I don't really give a ****, so here we go.  
Pan is 17, Bra is 17, Marron is 20, Goten is 22, and Trunks is 23.  
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Goten, Marron, Bra, and Trunks were once again hanging around Trunks' place, pondering what they should do. Trunks had the week off from his job at Capsule Corporation, so they wanted to make it a really fun time for all of them.  
"I know!" Bra shouted all of a sudden, sitting up from her sun tanning position on a lounge chair. "There's supposed to be a fair today! Let's check it out, you guys!"  
"A fair?" Marron said, skeptically. "I haven't been to one of those in a long time. Well, okay. Fine by me. What about you, boys?"  
"I'll go anywhere, so long as there's decent food!" Goten moaned miserably, his empty stomach giving an unhappy grumble.  
"Alas, poor Goten," Bra giggled. "Typical Saiyan, thinks with his stomach. But don't worry, there'll be French fries, hamburgers, and hot dogs galore."  
"Then I'm in," Goten sat up, nodding eagerly.  
Marron turned to the last remaining member of their group. "Trunks?"  
He shrugged. "Let's go!"  
And so they all set off to the outskirts of Satan City, where the major festival was taking place. Only because they flew over a certain person's house reminded Bra of someone else they probably should invite along.  
"Hey, guys, stop!" Bra called to the others, halting abruptly in midair and pointing downward, straight at Son Gohan's house.  
"Why'd you stop, Bra?" Goten asked, then looked down. "And over my brother's house, too?"  
"I think we should ask Pan if she wants to come along," Bra explained. "We haven't done anything with Pan in a long time."  
Everyone agreed, silently thinking of how each, (rare) time they asked Pan to come with them someplace, she turned them down with the excuse that she had to study, or she needed to finish homework, or was already going somewhere else.  
All the other times they had asked her over the phone, so they figured she probably couldn't say no when they were right there in front of her.  
"How long has it been since we've actually seen the elusive Son Pan?" Marron wondered aloud. In the two years right after Goku, Trunks, and Pan had come home from their Galactic Travels, the five of them had been good friends. But after that, for some reason, six years ago, Pan stopped hanging around them, and, to their embarrassment, they'd found that they really didn't notice that much, or care.  
"Uhh," Trunks thought for a moment. "Actually," he said, astonishment clear in his voice, "I haven't seen Pan in over a year!"  
"That's what I thought," Marron said, nodding. "Same for me."  
"Ditto," Bra echoed, even though she and Pan used to be best friends.  
"I saw her twice last year, at her birthday and at Gohan's birthday," Goten shrugged. "But not since then."  
"She had a birthday party?" Bra asked, surprised. "How come we weren't invited?"  
"I think it was kind of a personal, family thing," Goten replied.  
"We are practically family," Bra exclaimed.  
"Aw, come on, you guys, let's just go down and see her," Marron complained, and headed down. The others followed her, noting that Pan's and Gohan's ki's were in the house, so they must be home, and Videl must be out.  
Once they landed, Trunks walked right up and knocked on the door. They all heard movement from inside, and then Pan's voice.  
"I'll see who it is, Dad!" she yelled, obviously to her father. The four young friends outside started when they heard her voice, it was a lot different from what they'd last heard.  
Then the door opened wide and they saw Pan standing there, looking at them with a surprised expression on her face. The friends outside looked surprised, too, because Pan wasn't wearing her infamous orange bandanna on her head. She was dressed in a karate gi like her Grandpa Goku's, except for the fact that her grandpa's was orange and blue, and hers was white and blue. There was a faint gleam of sweat on her face, and it was obvious to anyone that she'd been working out.  
"Uncle Goten!" Pan exclaimed, "Bra, Marron, Trunks! It's great to see you guys!" They all nodded, about to explain why they were there when they heard Gohan.  
"Who is it, Pan?" he called from further inside the house, and they could tell that he was coming out to greet them.  
"It's Uncle Goten, Bra, Marron, and Trunks, Daddy!" Pan told him when he appeared. He looked surprised, too.  
"Well, come in, come in, then," he said to them, beckoning to them. "Don't just stand out there. Hey, little bro, what brings you guys here?"  
"We were just coming to ask if Pan wanted to come with us to the fair over near Satan City," Goten explained, gesturing in the direction of the city once they were all inside the house.  
"That's nice of you!" Gohan replied, beaming, then turned to his daughter. "I'm sure she'd love to go!" He was startled by Pan's answer.  
"Actually, Otousan, Ojisan, you guys, I was kind of in the middle of training," she answered quietly. "I still have seven-hundred twenty-eight more pushups on my left pinky, eight thousand situps, eight thousand hangups, eight thousand laps around the planet, and another hour of practicing my techniques."  
By the end of Pan's list, everyone in the room but she and her father were reeling. How could she do so much training?! Even the two half-Saiyan boys didn't think they could manage half of what she'd listed! And she'd already gotten partway through her training schedule!  
Gohan put his arm around Pan and patted her shoulder, "Aw, come on, sweetie, you can skip the practice for today. A one day break out of seven isn't going to make you any less fit."  
Now Goten, Marron, Bra, and Trunks' jaws were hanging. She did this every day? Just how much had she changed?!  
Pan's face was extremely reluctant as she continued with excuses, "Then, then, I still have some homework to do, Dad! And I have a math test tomorrow! I need to study!"  
Now Gohan was staring severely at Pan. "We both know you're going to ace that test, and we both know that you finished your homework an hour ago."  
Pan's face was stubbornly set. She pointedly ignored her father and turned to Trunks, Goten, Marron, and Bra.   
"Maybe another time, you guys. I'm kind of busy. And I do have important schoolwork to finish up, DAD." With that, she whirled around and raced up to her room.  
Gohan sighed, and looked at his guests. They were all staring off after Pan, shocked looks plastered on their faces.  
"Well, you should at least have a snack before the fair, for you're troubling with coming over and all," Gohan said, motioning for them to sit down on the sofa while he went into the kitchen.  
The four friends immediately took the opportunity to discuss what had just happened.  
"Was that weird, or what?" Trunks demanded.  
"What was with Pan? Didn't she even want to go?" Bra wondered.  
"And she actually told Gohan that she needed to do homework when she didn't!" Marron reminded them.  
"Eight thousand situps, hangups, and laps around the planet!" Goten shrieked.  
"Maybe she feels awkward around us since we haven't seen her in so long," Trunks reasoned.  
"Have we really been that neglectant of our friend?" Bra worried.  
"We'll just have to spend more time with her," Marron decided.  
"Eight thousand situps, hangups, and laps around the planet!!!!!!!!" Goten shrieked once more, at the exact moment that Gohan came back with some sodas and potato chips.  
Gohan sat down with a plop on the sofa, and sighed. "She does kind of tend to overdo the training," he admitted.  
"Gohan tell me seriously, bro, does she actually push herself beyond her capabilites? You shouldn't let her do that!" Goten reprimanded his brother.  
Gohan looked startled. "I never said she pushed herself too hard. She just obsesses over her training, that's all. All this stuff is too easy for her. The only thing she really likes is sparring with Vegeta and Dad."  
"She spars with Goku and Dad?" Trunks and Bra cried at the same time. "He never told us!"  
"They go out to the mountains a lot on weekends and really deck it out," Gohan explained. "They don't go super saiyajin since she can't, but she can hold her own if they don't transform."  
The room was silent as the Z youths tried to contain their shock. Then Marron recalled something.  
What exactly is her training schedule regularly, Gohan?" she asked.  
He looked up. "She stretches every muscle like I've taught her to, does warmup katas, spars with me for as long as she can if I'm available, does eight hundred pushups on each finger, eight thousand situps, eight thousand hang ups, eight thousand laps around the planet, uses each of her attacks fifteen times against herself, then spars with herself. Everything except the laps around the planet are done in the gravity room, usually at four hundred times Earth gravity. That's her easy days."  
Goten fainted.  
  
10:00 that night:  
Pan lay in bed, a scowl on her face. 'Why did they have to come today?' she wondered to herself. 'They're supposed to leave me alone. And now they've got Dad on my back...' Pan dearly loved her father, but sometimes he was so pressing about things. Like why she didn't want to go with...  
'Happy thoughts, happy thoughts,' Pan told herself quickly, keeping herself from straying down that path of thinking. Then she sighed, immediately thinking of something else. She'd trained herself to distract herself like that over the past five years.  
She'd had to delete eight messages off her machine, two from each of them, earlier that night. But at least she hadn't had to go with them.  
  
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RaliNeoBlade: What's up with Pan? Why's she acting so strange? How come she's avoiding her friends? Why did she drift away from them in the first place? Why didn't they care? Why do they suddenly care now? Will the author ever stop babbling and get on with the next chapter?! All this and more, and the next exciting episode, of DRAGONBALL Z!!!! (giggle, hiccup) I've been watching too much TV.   
Rali: Tell me what you think, please r/r, should I continue this?? I've already got the second chapter written, but I don't know if I should post it!! PLEASE!! (Gets on hands and knees and begs) R/R!!! 


	2. Christmas Chaos

Won't Ever Understand Me-Chapter Two  
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Disclaimer:(sadly) I don't own Dragonball Z....if I did, then Mirai Trunks, teen Gohan, and Goten would be all mine....(brightens) I know! I'll ask for it for my birthday! (prances about happily, singing)  
A/N: This chapter's gonna be a bit shorter than the first one, but I've pretty much got the next one figured out, and the one after that.  
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2 months later:  
  
It was Christmas Eve, and all of the Z soldiers were filtering into Capsule Corp. for the annual party. There were loads of other people, too, like the Next-Gen Z's friends, and people the Bulma was associated with through work.  
  
"Hello, Gohan, Videl!" Bulma greeted them as they came through the door, beaming when she saw Pan. "Well! Pan! You've gotten so big!"  
  
Pan's long, silky black hair that reached down to her waist was braided, with colorful hair ties an inch apart all the length of the braid. Her short bangs ended neatly just above her eyes, and she was wearing earrings. Actual earrings! Their tomboyish Pan was wearing earrings! They were gold, and shaped like flat, miniature Eternal Dragons, about an inch long each.  
  
She was wearing tight, dark blue Capri jeans, (jeans that are shorter than jeans, ending halfway between the knee and ankle,) and a red spaghetti strap shirt, that had glitter running around the neckline. On her left ankle was an anklet with stones carved into shapes of an orange cross, a pink heart, a blue cube, a white diamond, and so on.   
  
The only things recognizable as Pan were her shoes, old, worn, dark denim sneakers, which went surprisingly well with the outfit.  
  
Pan flinched as Bulma pulled her into a friendly embrace. "Hey, Bulma. Nice to see you, too. Sorry I couldn't make it to the last few parties. I've been busy."  
  
"That's fine, honey," Bulma replied absentmindedly. "I'm sure Trunks, Bra, Goten, and Marron will be glad to see you. They're sitting on the couch by the Christmas tree, go say hi."  
  
Pan nodded as Bulma started talking to her parents. Pan made as if to go towards the Christmas tree where the others were talking and examining presents, then, when she thought no one was looking, abruptly veered off to the left and crossed the room, slipping unobtrusively out the side door and out into the Briefs' huge side yard.   
  
Sighing, she went and stretched out under a big tree, and closed her eyes. *This party's such a nuisance,* she thought, annoyed. *I could be training to reach Super Saiyan right now, but noooo, I have to be at this stupid party. Oh, well. I knew Dad wouldn't let me keep avoiding coming for much longer.*  
  
She opened her eyes and turned her gaze to the stars, then looked away quickly, closing her eyes again. The stars...too many memories. She didn't want to think about that just now.  
  
  
**FLASHBACK**  
  
A fifteen year old Pan is following a twenty-one year old Trunks and a twenty year old Goten.  
  
"Hey, you guys!" she tried to get their attention. "We haven't seen each other in a while! Want to spar?"  
  
They stopped and looked at her, looking a little annoyed.  
  
"Pan, we can't play around with you right now," Trunks snapped, sounding irritated. "We've got things to do, jobs now. We can't just drop everything for to hang around with a little kid, like we used to."  
  
"Maybe some other time, Panny," Goten added vaguely, not watching her, instead, his eyes zeroing in on Marron and Bra, who were coming up the street."  
  
"Hi, Marron, Bra," Trunks and Goten said together. Trunks continued. "Hey, you didn't show up to lunch yesterday, Marr. How about we catch some grub right now to make up for it?"  
  
Goten nodded eagerly. "Yeah, food would be great now!"  
  
"All right," Marron said, smiling. They walked across the street, ignoring Pan and leaving her staring, overbright-eyes glistening.  
  
Almost as they were in the restaurant, Bra turned around and seemed to notice her for the first time.  
  
"Oh, hi, Pan, see ya," she waved absently as they disappeared inside the building.  
  
"Play around?" Pan whispered, clenching her fist. "Little kid? Panny? Too busy now, huh? Not too busy for Marron and Bra." A tear escaped from her eye.  
  
**END FLASHBACK**  
  
Pan opened her eyes, a single tear leaking our the corner of that same eye, remembering. That had only been a foreshadowing, a small reason in the cause of her totally splitting away from her 'friends'. She liked thinking about the other reasons even less.  
  
Goten turned to Trunks, Bra, and Marron in disbelief. "I don't believe it!" he whispered, shocked. "She was heading right over here! Then she just went out!"  
  
"Did you see what she was wearing?" Marron gaped. "Pan never dressed that well before!"  
  
"What is going on?" Bra demanded angrily. "Why is she avoiding us? We're trying to include her!!"  
  
Trunks frowned, then said, "Let's go out there and watch her, you guys. Stay quiet, don't let her see you."  
  
The others nodded, and they all went out the door, unnoticed.   
  
They saw Pan lying under the tree, and wondered how that was better than being inside with friends and family, celebrating Christmas. And they listened to the conversation that took place next.  
  
  
"Hello, Vegeta-sama," Pan said clearly, not bothering to open her eyes. She'd sensed the Prince watching her for some time.  
  
"What the hell are you doing out here, brat?" Vegeta shot at her harshly. Pan didn't react in the slightest.  
  
"Getting away, Vegeta-sama," she just replied calmly.  
  
"What do you have to get away from, girl?" he questioned, walking towards her and bending his knees to lean on his haunches. No one really knew it, but Pan and Vegeta got along very well. Vegeta loved Bra, but she had never liked fighting, and he didn't get along well with Trunks, so he generally treated Pan like the daughter he would have liked to have.  
  
"Them."  
  
Vegeta nodded, even though Pan couldn't see him. He knew exactly what she meant, and Pan knew he knew.   
  
"I see," he said simply. He tilted his head slightly, speculating, then lowered his voice so much that Trunks, Bra, Goten, and Marron couldn't hear him, even when they strained. "You don't fit in here."  
  
Pan acknowledged that by nodding slightly, and opening her eyes to look at her sensei questioningly.  
  
"Well, brat," Vegeta started gruffly, "there's only one thing that I can suggest you do, and it's going to make your parents and Kakarrot attempt to kill me, as if they ever could."  
  
Pan raised her eyebrows promptingly.  
  
"Spend a day or two in the Room of Spirit and Time," he said bluntly. "Work things out. Get stronger, so you can kill anyone who gives you trouble. Dende knows you should have been SSJ long ago."  
  
Pan chuckled slightly, but they both knew that he was serious. "I think I will. Thanks for the advice, Vegeta-sama. I think we should go inside now."  
  
Pan got to her feet, as did Vegeta, and they went different ways into the house, her through the door she'd come out, and him through the back door.  
  
  
"What was that about?" Goten asked the others, scratching his head as they sat back down on the couch.   
  
"I don't know, but I couldn't hear most of the conversation until Pan said something about, 'I think I will, thanks for the advice.' What do you make of it, bro?" Bra turned to Trunks.  
  
"I don't know. I just don't know." He immediately shut his mouth as Pan walked over, face emotionless, until she plastered a bright smile on it. It was amazing. They would have almost believed it was genuine, but they were watching carefully now. It was fake.  
  
"Hi Uncle Goten, Trunks, Marron, Bra," she said with false cheer.  
  
Then Goten looked at her foot, breaking into a real smile. "You're wearing the charm anklet I gave you!" he exclaimed, beaming. Pan grinned at him.  
  
"I you told I liked it. I wear it every time I go out," she answered. Bra, pretending to just notice something.  
  
In an effort to make conversation with their old friend, she asked, "Hey, Pan? What happened to your bandanna?"  
  
Pan looked back to where Bra was sitting, not surprised, though pretending to be. "I stopped wearing that years ago, Bra." Mentally adding, *When I stopped hanging around with you guys.*  
  
"Why?" Marron inquired, adopting a teasing tone. "You looked so cute with it!"  
  
Pan clenched her fist and her jaw stiffened, though she didn't let the others see it. *That's why. I don't want to be cute*, she wanted to say.  
  
"It had some bad memories in it," she replied instead. Now Bra, Marron, and Goten looked at Trunks, wondering what had happened on their Grand Tour of outer space.  
  
Sensing trouble, Goten steered away from that topic, launching into a similar, yet not the same, one. "You're hair looks really good in a braid like that, Panny. How'd you learn to do it like that?"  
  
Inwardly screaming, *Don't call me Panny!*, but outwardly shrugging, she answered, "I've had a lot of practice."  
  
"And when did you start calling Goten UNCLE?" Trunks asked her.   
  
Pan smirked. "He is my uncle, isn't he?"  
  
"It's just that, well, you never called him 'uncle' before..." Trunks trailed off, rather unnerved by how much Pan'd changed.  
  
"I've been doing it for a while," Pan replied, putting her arms on the sofa arm and resting her head on her arms, letting her braid fall to the ground, added quietly, "Maybe you just don't know me that well anymore."   
  
That remark kind of killed everyone's talking mood, and they sat in near silence until it was time to open presents. Only Trunks, Marron, Goten, and Bra struggled to start a conversation, but Pan never joined in, so it just died.  
  
  
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RaliNeoBlade: What IS Pan's problem??!! You may think that I answered it in this chapter but that was really only a teeny portion of it, so don't assume. Well, Christmas was a disaster. Is Pan going to go into the Room of Spirit and Time? Will her parents LET her?? All this, (okay, maybe not, I might want to keep stringing you along,) on the next, (I SWEAR there's going to be more action, I have it ALL planned out,) exciting chapter, of Won't Ever Understand Me!!!  
Rali: So what do you think? Please R/R! I got hardly any reviews for the last chapter, (pout) and I worked really hard on it. So, please tell what you think!! Okay, I'm done. Really. I'm going now. I swear. You'll hear no more out of my mouth this chapter. Seriously. 


	3. The Room of Spirit and Time

Won't Ever Understand Me-Chapter Three  
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Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z. But I DO own my Great Saiyaman action figure, so there! None of you can touch my GSM figurine!!! He's all mine!!!! HAHAHA! ::grins insanely and does a crazy jig with Great Saiyaman action figure.  
A/N: Thanks for reviewing, everyone. I luv reviews.  
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Midnight after the Christmas party:  
  
~I love you, Mom, Dad, never forget that. I'll be back in a few days, hopefully, but you might not recognize me because I'll probably be a bit more mature. Please don't kill anyone, Papa, this was my decision. I need to sort things out, and I need to get away from everyone to do that. I hope you'll understand and not be mad with me, because I think I'm doing this for the good of everyone. Tell everyone that I'll miss them.~  
~Your loving daughter forever, Son Pan~  
  
Pan swallowed, and placed the note on the kitchen table, where her parents would be sure to find it. She knew she had to go through with this. She couldn't keep living the way she was right now. She'd have a LOT more time to think about things....but now that it was time to go she couldn't help but feel reluctant to leave her Mom and Dad, the people that she hadn't been separated from for more than a few months at any point in her life.  
  
Yeah, yeah, the Galactic Travels was a long time, but then she'd had Grandpa Goku and.......Trunks.......with her. In the Room of Spirit and Time she'd be alone. Utterly alone. Her father had described it to her when she was younger...  
  
"Whiteness. Everywhere. Nothing else, for as far as the eye can see, and as far as you could hope to fly in a lifetime. It's a maddening place, Pan. I almost went insane in there."  
  
Complete isolation. Exactly what she needed. Exactly what she THOUGHT she'd wanted. *Ugh, I'd better do this now before I think about it too much and chicken out,* Pan said to herself, disgusted at her own lack of will.  
  
She floated silently up the stairs, opting not to go out the front door for fear of waking her parents. Judging by the slight noises she'd heard from their room last night, _Pan smiled, it was nice to know that her parents still loved each other,_ her Mom and Dad wouldn't be up until late morning. It wouldn't be a problem for their work, since it was the winter vacation.  
  
Carefully sliding the window open, she was about to jump into the air, when she hesitated. Then went back to her desk and spent the next half hour swiftly writing a letter to her Grandpa Goku. He, of all people, deserved to get his own special note.  
  
But then she was off. It didn't take her very long to reach Kami's Lookout, since she'd been there so many times and was much faster because of her training. Deftly slipping past the gardening Mr. Popo and the resting Dende, Pan suddenly faced the door to the newly improved Room of Spirit and Time, aka the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.  
  
Ever since the Cell Games, when the RoSaT had been in the most use, Bulma, her father, and Mr. Popo had been working on the chamber, trying to allow people to stay in for more than two years. They succeeded eventually, and now people were capable of training for ten days, or ten years. Fortunately for Pan, the controls for the room were inside, so no one would be able to come in after her. Or so she thought.   
  
Pan opened the ancient door, stepped inside, and set the controls for five days/years. Before shutting the door, she ran out and into the room where Mr. Popo kept the extra sets of saiyan armor. She smiled appreciatively when she found a few sets built for the body of a woman. Well! At least SOMEONE thought that women could fight enough to be of help.  
  
Then she slipped back into the chamber. Just before she closed the door, she grinned secretly and thought, 'I'm going to be as old as Uncle Goten.....won't he be surprised."  
  
Carefully setting her bag of belongings on the bed that she was going to be sleeping in for the next five years, she delayed as long as she could, stalling having to go out to where her father had described. Finally, after she'd straightened the sheets, tugged at the curtain, checked on the food supply, and tucked her clothes in the dresser, she could avoid it no longer. She went outside.  
  
And gaped. At first she thought that she'd gone blind. But then, slowly, she realized that she wasn't not seeing. She was seeing nothing. It stretched forever. Desolate emptiness, colored white. Panic gripped her saiyajin heart, and Pan turned around quickly, eyes frantically wanting to be able to look at something.   
  
She dropped to her knees, shame coloring her thoughts black. She felt like such a coward. She'd faced Bebi, the evil dragons, and so much more....but she had never been more frightened in her life than just when she looked out into that void of nothingness.   
  
'I'll get used to it….I'll get used to it….' she told herself desperately. Oh, Kami, trying to train for five years in a place where she was scared out of her wits? This was going to be harder than she'd thought. 'Okay, I HOPE I get used to it…..I HOPE I get used to it.'  
  
Thinking those reassuring words, (A/N: yeah, RIGHT!!) Pan slowly turned around and faced IT again. And covered her eyes immediately.  
  
"Coward," she ground out through gritted teeth. Without opening her eyes, Pan stepped off the platform and onto the whiteness. She did NOT want to see herself standing on seemingly nothing. She couldn't tell the floor from the sky in this crazy place.  
  
"Oooofff!" Pan's breath was suddenly gone as she struggled with the increased gravity. It was nothing compared to what she usually trained in, but completely unexpected, so it had caught her off guard. Swiftly making a mental shift, she was able to stand comfortably. Slowly, ever so slowly, she opened her eyes to peek out at her surroundings.  
  
She remembered something her grandpa Goku had once said. "The gravity is many times that of Earth's, and the temperature can change from below freezing to as hot as the sun in seconds."  
  
'Well, this is going to be fun,' she thought wryly, then grinned. It was a good sign that she was able to joke, even with herself, at this point. Maybe she'd be able to survive after all, if she still had her wits with her.  
  
Starting to stretch, she stopped suddenly, realizing an added complication. "How the hell am I going to keep from getting lost in here?" she complained out loud. The scenario was never-changing, and if she got out of sight of her 'home'….  
  
"Great. Just great. This is absolutely PEACHY FRICKIN' KEEN!!!" she yelled. Pan looked at her boots and sighed.  
  
  
Trunks shot up in his bed, sheets soaked with sweat, eyes wide and unseeing. The whiteness! The utter emptiness! It was the most terrible thing he'd ever seen!! Breath coming in gasps, he gripped his head in his hands, and tried to calm himself.  
  
He was awake, he knew he was...but he was still seeing.....well, seeing nothing. He never knew nothing could be so bright.  
  
Slowly, reason crept back into his eyes, and what he was seeing faded from white plain to his own, familiar, dark, furniture filled room. Trunks practically sobbed with relief.  
  
He sank slowly back into his mattress, panicked mind soothed by the darkness that was so contradictory to the thing in his dream. WHAT had that been? It had seemed so real...and he'd never seen anything like it in his life.  
  
Then he frowned, thinking back on the dream. Endless nothingness? Why had he been afraid of that? But...it hadn't been his fear. Somehow, he knew that. It was someone elses, and as soon as the fear had receded, he'd been allowed to wake up. How strange. He'd have to ask Father about it. Father knew about those type of things.  
  
  
  
Vegeta jolted awake, shocked out of sleep by the shrill of fear that he'd felt from Trunks, through his fraternal link with the boy.  
  
He saw remnants of the dream...The Room of Spirit and Time! How had that gotten into the brat's head? He'd never been there....  
  
And then Vegeta's mind snapped. The advice he'd given to Kakarrot's brat's brat! Go to the Room of Spirit and Time! He'd been awake earlier, and had felt her spurt of energy when she'd flew to Kami's Lookout.  
  
But why had Trunks felt what Pan had felt? It must have been what Pan had seen, Vegeta was sure of that now. She was the right type of person to be afraid of that horrid place.  
  
No....it couldn't be....Vegeta mentally laughed at himself. Bonded? His brat and Gohan's brat? Preposterous! That wasn't what he'd gathered from the dream, anyway. When bonds were up, they were instant. And the dream that Trunks'd had wasn't clear at all. Hazy.....what was going on?  
  
He'd known when he was bonded when he started having Bulma's dreams of loneliness. They were so vivid, and he still had her nightmares now, whenever she had them. It didn't feel like Trunks was bonded to Pan....he couldn't sense any link between them. Then why had Trunks dreamed Pan's experience?  
  
This would take some serious thought.  
  
  
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RaliNeoBlade: Hahaha!! Cliffhanger!!! I'm so evil. And I still haven't let you know what's happening! Sorry. I was planning on explaining that this chapter, but it would have taken too long. So, you'll have to wait. Are Trunks and Pan bonded??! When is there going to be more action and romance?! All this and more on the next exciting chapter of, WON'T EVER UNDERSTAND ME!!!  
Rali: R/R!!!!! Okay, I read the reviews, people wanted more romance, so I put some in. I wasn't going to do it that early, but....hey. Supply and demand, right? And to answer people's questions....no. Sorry. This isn't going to be T/P. Weeeelllll, not EXACTLY *hint, hint* Kind of. Sort of. In a way. There is definetely going to be more romance, though, and I'll explain the bonding thing later on. Couples will be more clear later. Please tell me what you think. (Sorry this is kind of short. ::grimace::)  



	4. A Clue to Who

Won't Ever Understand Me- Part Four  
  
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Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z. ::smiles slyly:: Yet. BUT JUST YOU WAIT!! I've already got five of the Dragonballs, and when I get the next two, then it'll be mine!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! (Sees everyone staring) ::sweatdrop:: What?  
  
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Mirai Timeline  
  
Trunks stood on the newly rebuilt Capsule Corporation. He couldn't understand why his Mom had wanted to make it bigger, when the only places that she really went to were the kitchen, her room, and her laboratory. He smiled faintly as he remembered her reaction when he'd questioned her about it.  
  
**FLASHBACK**  
  
"Why?" she'd asked, looking dumbfounded. "Why? Because it's bigger! And....y'know...better...."  
  
He'd laughed and teased her. "Bigger and better? That's so profound, Mom. I have to write it down."  
  
She huffed and stomped her foot, then looked at him slyly, and teased him right back. "Well, maybe I just wanted to expand it to be able to fit in all the grandchildren you're bound to have!"  
  
He stammered, blushed, and waved his hands around. "Mom! Yeah right! I don't even have a girlfriend right now!"  
  
She glared at him sternly and said, "Then you'd better get one soon, mister! You should settle down. Get a job or something."  
  
He looked at her ruefully, and shrugged, smiling sheepishly.  
  
**END FLASHBACK**  
  
Did she really expect him to settle down? With who? There was no one that he could relate to in this world. No one else had powers like he did. People were either too awed by his strength, and by the fact that he'd destroyed the androids to get to know him as a person, or too scared or his power. And women? They just wanted him because he was supposedly good looking.  
  
Trunks sat down, wrapping his arms around his knees and hugging them to his chest. The fact was, he was bored. Yup. That's right. There was nothing to fight, no one to spar with. He could only get so much stronger sparing against himself in the gravity room. And that was all he did nowadays. Train. He didn't really wish that the androids were back, but...At least when they were around, he had a purpose. His whole life, he'd been driven by the thought of revenge. Focused on training. Obsessed with destroying the androids.  
  
Now that they were gone, it seemed that there was no meaning in his life. Sure, he was a hero to Earth. And sure, he couldn't exactly have let the androids go free, just so he could have something to do every day. He sighed, dropping his head onto his knees.  
  
Okay. He admitted it. He missed them. His friends from the past. Goku, Gohan, all of them. Hell, he'd give up his sword to spar with even his FATHER. Not that he had any particular liking for his father. He'd been trying to keep it from his mom, but he was lonely. There was no one on this rock who understood him. His mom had been surrounding by the Z fighters her whole life, but she couldn't really grasp the excitement, the thrill of battle, the rush, the high.  
  
He couldn't exactly brag to his mom about how he'd blown up a mountain with only a flick of his hand, now could he? She wouldn't be happy to hear that.  
  
"Rrrrummmmbble." Trunks glanced at his stomach, and grinned. Ahh, his only sympathizer had spoken up. "I suppose I should get something to eat," he mused, standing up. He levitated several meters into the air. And then his vision went dark.  
  
Inside Capsule Corp.  
  
Bulma looked up in alarm when she heard a loud "THUD!" on the roof, and then a series of "THUMP, THUMP, BUMP, BANG!"s, and finally a "BAM!" on the ground out in the front yard. "Trunks?" she called, heading out the door, worry plastered on her face.  
  
And stared. Trunks lay prone on the cracked ground. Apparently, he'd been above the building when he'd hit it, and rolled down the curved sides until he finally hit the ground. Remembering that she should be concerned about his well being, although she didn't see how merely falling to the ground could harm HIM, Bulma rushed to him and cradled his head in her lap, checking for any injuries.  
  
"What the..." she muttered, puzzled, because she couldn't find anything wrong with him. He was just...out.  
  
Trunks sat up, so suddenly that Bulma shrieked and scooted away from him, her heart racing. She recovered her wits, scowled, marched over to him and slapped him on the back of the head.  
  
"Why in the world did you do that?!" she shouted at him, then noticed how fast he was breathing, and how pale he looked. "Trunks?" she crouched next to him and looked into his eyes. She saw stark terror there. "Are you okay, honey? What happened?"  
  
He ran a shaking hand through his hair, then stared at it. "The Room of Spirit and Time," he muttered quietly. "I don't get it...I haven't dreamt about that place in years." He looked up at his mother, confused. "Mom, I blacked out and saw the Room of Spirit and Time. I BLACKED OUT. It was freaky. It felt like it was the first time I had seen it. It felt the same, and looked the same, but it was like I was looking out through someone else's eyes, and they were scared of it, too. What could it mean?  
  
Bulma gazed at her son, and said quite honestly, "I don't know."  
  
Present Timeline- 10:30 AM  
  
Videl walked into the kitchen, yawning sleepily, garbed in her nightgown and robe. She looked around and saw Gohan bent over a piece of paper at the kitchen table, so she pulled out a chair and sat down opposite him.  
  
She yawned again, then asked, "Gohan, where's Pan? She's usually up training at this hour." When Gohan didn't reply she glanced at him more sharply. "Gohan?" He was staring at the piece of paper, and she noticed that his hands were trembling. She grew more concerned, and said, "Gohan!"  
  
He looked up at her slowly, then said in a low voice, "Pan's gone."  
  
Videl was up in an instant. "WHAT?!" She snatched the piece of paper from him and scanned it quickly, then paled. She moaned and sank back into the chair. "Why did she leave? Where did she go?"  
  
"I don't know." Gohan cursed violently, and then called his dad. It rung for a while, then Goku picked up, answering with his usual cheerful, "Hello?" `He wouldn't sound like that if he knew where Pan was,' Gohan thought.  
  
"Dad, Pan's run away." From the silence that followed, Gohan, figured that his dad was probably blinking and pondering this information. It was a while before he answered, and when he did, the words were slow and deliberate.  
  
"Do you know why?"  
  
Gohan blew out a frustrated breath. "Of course not! She left a note, but it didn't explain anything. She didn't seem unhappy, or anything."  
  
Goku paused again, then said, like he wasn't really sure he should say it, "Vegeta might know."  
  
Gohan started, surprised. "Why would Vegeta know."  
  
"Well," Goku said reluctantly, "he's been training Pan a lot, and I just thought that she might tell him. You know how closed mouthed he is, I think Pan might have told him because of that."  
  
"All right, then , Videl and I will head over to the Briefs. Can you call everyone and ask them to meet us there?"  
  
"Sure," Goku said, more happily.  
  
"Thank, Dad." Gohan hung up. He glanced at Videl. "Come on, we've got to go to Capsule Corp."  
  
In the Room of Spirit and Time  
  
"HAAAA!!" Pan yelled, launching the biggest Kamehameha she could muster at the mountain of solid ice in front of her, as frost crept up her body. The surface cracked. "AAAAAhhhhhnnnn!!!" she gritted out as she pushed more power into the blast. The beam finally forced its way through, and all the ice around her exploded.  
  
"AAAAHH!!" she screamed as she was blown backward and into the air. She landed with a thud on her back, and couldn't get up as the gravity gave a sudden, huge leap, and the temperature fluctuated to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. She panted desperately, trying to force the burning air into her laboring lungs. She struggled to lift her arm, and finally planted it palm down on the ground, and then fought to force herself into a sitting position.  
  
Ten minutes later, she'd managed to stand up, but it was just barely, and every second was a battle against being forced to the floor. Her bodysuit was ripped and torn and scuffed and dirty and she was sweating like a pig in the intense heat and the strain of the gravity. Pan sobbed with the frustration of it. Then, just as suddenly as it had came, the gravity and high temperature were gone, and Pan shot high into the air due to the sudden release. She was too exhausted to do anything but fall back onto the ground and gasp in air.  
  
She moaned and closed her eyes. `I've only been in here four months and it's been like this the whole time! I haven't even reached Super Saiyan yet! How am I going to stand five years in here?"  
  
A slight breeze ruffled her hair and Pan enjoyed it for a moment before she remembered something. She sprang up and looked around suspiciously. `There aren't breezes in here...Unless..." Too late, she ran for the safety of the temple. The winds kicked up wildly, and pretty soon, Pan was being tossed around and battered in the storm. She tried to use her energy to keep her in one place, but she was too tired, and the power of the wind was too strong. Her stomach lurched and she moaned, getting dizzier and dizzier. She whimpered, and her last thought before she passed out was, `I hate this place.'  
  
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RaliNeoBlade: Poor Pan!! I'm so cruel. ::snigger:: Anyway. What has Mirai Trunks got to do with anything? Why did he black out and see the RoSaT? What will Gohan do when he finds out where Pan is? Will I ever get on with the romance? All this and more, in the next exciting chapter of, Won't Ever Understand Me!!  
  
Rali: Hi. Sorry it took so long to get this out. It's due to Writer's Block and parents using the internet all the time so I can't! ::scowls:: And they say *I* go on too much! Anywayz. Can you figure out who Pan's going to be with now? I think it's pretty obvious, but...And if you're wondering how it's gonna happen, just you wait till the next chapter! 


	5. Unexplainable Happenings

Won't Ever Understand Me- Part Five  
  
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Disclaimer: I-I … ::sob:: I d-don't… ::sniffle:: I DON'T OWN DBZ!!! ::wailing:: You don't have to rub it in!!! Leave me be!!! ::weep::  
  
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"Do you know why we're here, Yamucha?" Kuririn asked, scratching his head a bit. He was sitting on a couch in the Briefs' living room after Goku had teleported around and zapped everyone there.  
  
"No clue," Yamucha confessed, sighing and leaning back. "Do you think that there's another threat to Earth?" he said slowly.  
  
Kuririn paled, and cleared his throat. "I-I don't think so," he stammered. "I mean, we would have sensed something, wouldn't we?"  
  
Juuhachi leaned into the conversation, giving her husband a slightly ironic smile. "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that. You couldn't sense androids, could you? Who knows what else could be out there that could hide their energy signatures?" she teased.  
  
Yamucha paled, but Kuririn knew that Juuhachi was just trying to scare them. At least, he hoped so.  
  
"Everyone listen up!" Gohan stood at the front of the room, looking out at everyone there; Kuririn, Juuhachi, Bulma, Vegeta, Tenshinhan, Chaotzu, Ox-King, Chichi, Goku, Videl, Piccolo, Master Roshi, Mr. Satan, Yamucha, Marron, Bra, Trunks, and Goten. His face was grave.  
  
"Pan has run away from home." Gohan caught Vegeta's eyes, trying to find some flicker of knowledge there, but the ebony depths remained impassive.  
  
All around him talk was breaking out, from Mr. Satan's panicked, "My cute little granddaughter is gone?! Oh, no! Call the police! The fire department! The SWAT team! The National Guard!" to Bulma's concerned, "Why in the world would Pan leave home?"  
  
Gohan swallowed painfully, then started again. "She left a note saying that…that she was okay, and that she'd be back, but she didn't say when, or where she went. And, if you'll notice, her ki can't be sensed anywhere…I don't know what that means…" Videl came up behind him and put her arms around his waist comfortingly. It helped both of them, and Gohan straightened.  
  
"I just wanted to let you know, and to ask i-if anyone had any clue to where she might be. Thanks." Some immediately crowded around him, offering condolences. Others stayed where they were, in shock. Among these were the Z teens.  
  
"Pan's…gone?" Bra managed finally.  
  
"But why?" Marron said hopelessly. "I mean, I noticed that she's…changed, and she looked kind of, well, unhappy…but…"  
  
"I… don't understand," Goten murmured, lowering his head to hide the shimmering of tears in his eyes, and to hide the pain. "Does it have something to do with what happened last night? What happened outside that we didn't see?"  
  
"She can't be gone!" Bra said wildly. "Even if something were bothering her, she wouldn't be so weak as to *run away*! This is Pan we're talking about! Tough girl!"  
  
"I don't think Pan's as strong as she pretends to be," Marron said quietly. "I think she's kind of like Vegeta…holding her pain inside and standing up straight no matter what."  
  
Trunks, quiet until now, finally spoke up. "This has something to do with us," he said, total confidence in his words. The other teens looked up, surprised.  
  
"With us?" Goten asked. "What are you talking about?"  
  
Trunks wasn't listening. His brow was furrowed in concentration. "Something to do with us…" he muttered again.  
  
"Oh, great," Bra said, exasperated. "Now he's gone into one of his rare 'thinking modes'."  
  
"You guys," Marron said cautiously. "I think he may be right. Pan's been avoiding us. She's uncomfortable around us, and we hardly ever do anything with her anymore."  
  
"We were going to change that!" Bra protested. "We were going to hang out with her more!"  
  
"She stays at home all the time, studying or training," Goten contributed. "Gohan said he was worried because she didn't have any friends at school, but I thought that was okay, because she had us…"  
  
"She never came to any of Mom's get togethers," Trunks mused. "She didn't even tell us she was training with Dad and Goku. I think we must have hurt her somehow, guys."  
  
Vegeta's voice rang out suddenly above everyone else's talk. "The girl is in the Room of Spirit and Time," he said nonchalantly. Everyone's heads whipped around. It was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop.  
  
"What did you say?" Gohan said, his voice deceptively calm, barely concealing the underlying well of anger.  
  
Vegeta walked right up, so close to Gohan that they were almost touching. "The Room of Spirit and Time," he repeated, "She went there to train and find out who she was. Sort out her problems. I for one approved of her actions. Very worthy of a saiya-jin." Then his tone became derisive. "And if you didn't even notice what she was going through, what a sorry father you are."  
  
Gohan's face was very pale, but he didn't say anything in response to Vegeta's words. Everyone watched them, wide eyed.  
  
Goku started, warily, "Vegeta-…" But Gohan cut him off by grabbing his arm.  
  
"Dad. The Lookout. Now." A moment passed while Videl put her hand on Gohan's arm, and then they disappeared.  
  
**********  
  
Mirai Trunks' Timeline  
  
Trunks tapped his foot on the hardwood floor quickly. Then he got up and paced the length of the room for a few minutes before growling and flinging himself back down on the couch. His nerves were wracked. He was restless, and couldn't get the thought of the vision out of his mind.  
  
"Trunks, honey, are you okay?" Bulma sounded concerned, and Trunks looked up to see his mother in the doorway, holding a platter with some cups and a teapot. "You seem jumpy."  
  
Trunks sighed. "I'm fine, Mom." He gestured for her to come sit next to him, which she did. "I just- It's nothing. I'm fine, really."  
  
"You've never lied to me before and I don't want you to start now!" Bulma said sharply, rapping his wrist sharply with a spoon as he reached for a cup of tea. "Now tell me what's really going on!"  
  
Trunks, withdrawing his hand, chuckled wryly despite his strange restlessness. That same tone of voice had probably scolded his father as well…His mother was really something else.  
  
"Well?" Bulma prodded.  
  
He hesitated. "It's just that, ah, I feel like something's going to happen," he admitted. "It's like a premonition. A niggling little sensation that won't go away." Seeing his mother's thoughtful look, he tried harder to describe it. "Like, uhm, an itch I can't scratch."  
  
"When did it start?" Bulma questioned, tapping her finger against her chin in an unconscious habit she'd acquired whenever she was concentrating.  
  
"After I woke up from blacking out," Trunks said dutifully. Then he got up, his frustration showing plainly on his face. His power level rose slightly. "I just can't sit still!" he exclaimed. "I feel like I've forgotten something important, and I'm just about to remember it, but then I can't!"  
  
"Calm down, Trunks, calm down," Bulma said, growing alarmed. The last time she had seen Trunks so listless was after he got out of the hospital wing just before he went to the past. It was stirring up painful memories.  
  
Trunks ignored her and continued pacing, faster. Bulma was about to grab his arm when he suddenly went stiff, his eyes wide and unseeing, his mouth slack.  
  
"Trunks! TRUNKS!!!"  
  
_*_*_ The wind was howling, worse than ever before, and the gravity was high; unbearably high. The burning white landscape suddenly contorted, and They cried out, shielding Their eyes against a brilliant flash of light. Then reality began to spiral; the temple, ground, and floor swirling together, draining into a single point of light far below. They were screaming, and a distant voice was calling out Their name. Someone was reaching out- trying to grab hold of Them, but then They were falling, falling into that light, and everything else faded. _*_*_  
  
THUD. He hit the floor. Bulma knelt beside her unconscious son, shaking him frantically. "Trunks!" she cried. "Wake up! Don't you dare leave me dammit! Trunks!"  
  
She was scared, but she sobbed and kept shaking him. What had just happened?! One minute he was just there, fine…Okay, a little jittery, but it was nothing! Then he was frozen, and his eyes went wider and wider, and they were just so empty, like he was GONE! He started shaking, and no mattering what she had done, she hadn't been able to snap him out of it.  
  
_I'm am *not* going to lose Trunks,_ Bulma thought grimly. _I don't know *what* is going on, but nothing, *nothing* is going to take my son from me. He's all I have left._ Then she hurried to the kitchen to get some water to splash him with.  
  
**********  
  
Pan wolfed down her food angrily, ripping the roll apart with a feral growl. It had been two months since the heat storm had wiped her out, and though she was undoubtedly much stronger, she just couldn't seem to reach super saiyajin!  
  
What was the matter with her? she thought. She had the drive, and she most definitely had the anger that was the key to the transformation. She remembered the words her grandfather had said to her once. She had been a little girl, and had wanted to do the same thing all her favorite people did. But how how HOW was she going to make her hair a glowing gold, and her eyes teal green? She wanted to be a super saiyajin!  
  
Goku had laughed, and then said, "It comes from a need, not a desire, Panny." She had stubbornly protested that she *did* need to be a super saiyajin. She needed it so she could be happy. Goku had just laughed some more, not unkindly, and ruffled her hair.  
  
Was it the need, she wondered? There was no threat to the planet at the moment, her friends weren't in any danger. Her father had said that only through raw, soul-searing emotional loss and pain did he, Goku, Vegeta, and Mirai Trunks achieve super saiyajin. About Goten and this timeline's Trunks…well, nobody except they knew about that.  
  
"And they weren't about to *tell* me," Pan said bitterly. But she *would* do it. She *would* reach that plateau. She would show them all. There had to be some way, and she would find it. No matter what the price.  
  
  
  
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RaliNeoBlade: Hmmmmm. Pan seems really set on this, doesn't she? Almost FREAKY, if you ask me. EVERYONE: We *didn't* ask you!!! RaliNeoBlade: well, fine, BE that way. ::sulk:: What drastic measures will Gohan and the others take to bring Pan back? Why was Trunks so jittery, and just WHAT happened to make him freak out?! Will Pan ever become a super saiyajin! Keep watching for the next chapter of, Won't Ever Understand Me!!!!!  
  
Rali: Sorry that took so long. I was occupied with other stories, other things. (stupid high school application essay…) Anyway! What did you think? Please kindly RATE this story from 1-10, (1 being bad, 10 being really good,) and tell me what you think is gonna happen. Feedback is much appreciated. Check out my other stories if you can, BYE! 


	6. Thrown Through the Door

Won't Ever Understand Me- Part Six  
  
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Disclaimer: I WAS SO CLOSE TO OWNING DBZ!!!! SOOOOOOO CLOSE!!!!! Wah!! ::sob, sob:: Then that stupid pig had to go and wish for a pair of underwear and USE UP MY WISH!!!!!! DAMMIT!!! I don't own DBZ, leave me alone!!!! (However, I do own this plotline, so don't copy me!) Just wait until the dragonballs are active again…I'll show that pig…  
  
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"Scat, you!" the big cat swatted Yajirobe with his broom. "Don't you even *attempt* to cook! I don't have a death wish!"  
  
"Aw, come on, Korin, I'm not that bad!" the fat, cowardly swordsman complained.  
  
Korin scowled. "You wouldn't say that if you'd ever actually *tasted* your own cooking! Now get out of here, and don't go near the senzu bean garden, either! I just know you'll come up with some way to kill everything in it, it'd be just like you…"  
  
"Whatever… Yajirobe went off, sulking. Korin sighed. He sensed much agitation from the Z senshi, and it was making him tense. He could also feel that Goku, Gohan, and Videl were at the Lookout at the moment, and others were heading there. He hoped that they wouldn't have a need for senzu beans any time soon.  
  
"WHOOOSH!"  
  
"Whoa!" Korin went to the railing and looked up, his eyes following the blurs that had just passed. _Hmmmm, that was Trunks, Goten, Bra, and Marron,_ the old cat thought, stroking his chin. _Looks like something is up._ He sighed again. _I'm getting too old for this._  
  
Distantly, he saw a tubby figure among the stalks of senzu beans, and bristled. "YAJIROBE!!! What did I tell you?! GET OUT OF THE GARDEN!!!!!"  
  
**********  
  
"Zhhhm!" Mr. Popo looked up in surprise at the three figures who had suddenly appeared on the lookout. His wide face broke out into a grin as he set down his watering pot and went to greet them. "Goku, Gohan, Videl, what a pleasant surprise!"  
  
Gohan shook his head grimly, heading straight for the building on the Lookout. "This isn't a leisure visit, Mr. Popo, sorry to say. Did either of you see Pan come up here last night?"  
  
"Pan? No, I don't think so," Mr. Popo replied, following them. He cocked his head, puzzled. "Why?"  
  
Gohan didn't answer.  
  
Dende finally noticed that they were there, and came running after them from his spot on the edge of the Lookout, where he had been watching events on the Earth. "Gohan!" he smiled, before he noticed the look on Gohan's face. "What's the problem?"  
  
"Pan's run away for some reason," Videl explained to him/  
  
"That's horrible," Dende frowned. "Do you want me to look for her from the Lookout? I can see anything on the planet from up here, you know."  
  
Videl shook her head. "No, that's not necessary. You see, we have reason to believe that Pan went into the Room of Spirit and Time yesterday. That's why we're here, to see if she is."  
  
"Oh, but you can't…" Dende trailed off as they reached the big, intricately carved door that lead to the Room of Spirit and Time. A digital timer was set to the left of it, the advanced technology looking very out of place next to the antique door.  
  
Gohan glanced at it and his eye twitched. "Five days?! She set that thing for five days?! I can't let her do that!" He put his hand on the handle of the door, but Goku stopped him. Gohan looked up into his father's face, startled.  
  
"I don't think that's such a good idea, Gohan." Goku appeared very serious for once.  
  
"Uhm, Gohan, you can't…" Dende was ignored.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Pan has her own reasons for doing this, and she's obviously not going to appreciate it if you come barging in like the overprotective father you are," he stopped Gohan with a wave of his hand when it looked like he would protest, "and undermine all of her hard work. For whatever reasons, she needs to get away for a while, and I for one think that the Room of Spirit and Time is a good place for that."  
  
"Gohan," Dende said a little more urgently. "There's something…"  
  
"I'm not about to let her waste five years of her life!" Gohan argued, not even hearing Dende.  
  
"Who said it was going to be a waste?" Goku inquired. "She'll be training, and studying, no doubt. She may even become a super saiyajin in time."  
  
"She could become a super saiyajin here, in the regular dimension."  
  
"*Gohan*…"  
  
"Not quickly enough for her," Goku stated. "She needs this. She's wanted it for a long time. All of the other saiyajin can, except for her and Bra, who doesn't care about fighting. I remember a time when she was *five years old* when she asked me how to become a super saiyajin. It's very important to her."  
  
Videl looked on helplessly as her husband and father-in-law argued. She knew that she should be a part of this discussion, Pan was her daughter too, after all, but….Pan wanted to become a super saiyajin, and the fighting instincts of her ancestors ran through her veins. Videl couldn't really understand that, the need to fight that so many people she now knew had. She wasn't about to make her daughter give up her dream just because she thought it wasn't necessary. However, she doubted Gohan would take that view, so she stayed quiet.  
  
"Hey, we're here!" Trunks panted as he leaned over to catch his breath. Goten, Bra, and Marron ran up next to him, doing the same. "Did we miss anything? Is Pan back?"  
  
Everyone but Gohan turned to look at the newcomers, and Gohan jerked open the door the Room when they did. Dende whipped his head around when he heard the creak.  
  
"Gohan, NO!" he shouted, horrified. "YOU CAN'T OPEN THE DOOR FROM OUTSIDE WHEN SOMEONE'S IN THERE!!!!"  
  
Gohan turned to look at him, then his eyes widened in surprise when Trunks fell to his knees, clutching his head. "What the…?"  
  
He turned to the door and saw that, instead of the temple and the white landscape he was used to, it was a twisting chaos of fire and wind, twisting all out of proportion into a downward spiral.  
  
"Falling…falling….ahhhhhhh," Trunks moaned, curling into a fetal position on the floor.  
  
"Pan!" Gohan started to reach through the door, but Videl slammed her body against it. It closed with a whoosh. The timer panel next to it was going crazy, all the buttons beeping and colors flashing.  
  
"What just happened?" Videl asked, voice shaking as she leaned against the door, as if she thought it would open of its own volition.  
  
"I was trying to tell you!" Dende cried.  
  
"Tell us what?" Goku asked anxiously.  
  
"What happened?" Gohan said, repeating his wife. "Is Pan okay? What did I do?" He looked over to where Goten, Marron, and Bra were trying to snap Trunks out of whatever he was doing. "And what's wrong with Trunks?"  
  
"You can't ever open the door from the outside before the person inside's time is up," Dende explained, rubbing his temples. "The Room of Spirit and Time is in another dimension- You can't just tear open the time- space continuum like that."  
  
"What happened to Pan?" Videl reiterated, worry showing clearly on her face as she went to stand next to Gohan. She put her hand on his arm, trying to comfort him. He looked deathly pale.  
  
"Well, I don't know what's wrong with Trunks, but…" he hesitated, looking away from the glares he was receiving. "The most probable thing is….Dammit, she was thrown into another dimension!"  
  
THUMP. Videl hit the floor as Gohan, Goku, Goten, Bra, and Marron stared at Dende in shock. Maybe because God had cursed or Pan's predicament, but most likely the latter. Trunks was still curled into a ball on the floor, his face screwed up tightly.  
  
"Do you know where- which one? Do you know how to get there?" Gohan asked him once he got his throat to work.  
  
Dende sighed, rubbing his temples again. He was getting a migraine. "Well, because the door wasn't open for that long and no one actually went in, I'd say she's in a relatively close dimension, but there are still thousands of those, since there are an infinite number of possible realities. I have no idea how to get there, it could take years just to pinpoint her location."  
  
THUMP. Gohan joined Videl, prone on the floor.  
  
**********  
  
Pan punched the air a few more times, then stopped uneasily, rubbing her hands together in a nervous habit she had developed. She couldn't seem to settle into her training today. The sense of foreboding was too strong, she just couldn't concentrate enough to get a good workout.  
  
"What's wrong with me?" she sighed, frustrated, throwing some kicks at an invisible enemy for good measure. No good. Every hair on her body, save the ones on her head, was prickling at some instinctual warning signs that she didn't understand. Her senses were tingling and she kept whipping around to look behind her, as if looking, waiting for something important to happen.  
  
_I can't practice all tense like this. The first rule in ki fighting is to relax, to feel your center._ She growled to herself. _My goddamn center has to be a million miles away, for all I can relax._  
  
Pan sat down on the curb at the edge of the temple, resting her head in her hands. _Is it because of him? This uneasiness?_ she wondered. _Even now, as far as I've run away, is he still in my thoughts, throwing off my balance? No way. I've worked too hard at keeping him out. He doesn't care about you, Pan, none of them do, remember that. Build up that wall, strengthen you defenses, don't let any of them get to you._  
  
Gonna hide behind that mask all your life? Try to forget?? A nasty, taunting voice, her own voice, sniped at her.  
  
_I don't run from my problems!_ Pan denied. _I'm not a coward!_  
  
Never said you were, m'dear…Even the best of us hide from what we just can't face, but you *did* run. Look, you went so far as to come to the Room of Spirit and Time…to hide.  
  
_I'm not hiding!_ Pan protested helplessly. _What do I have to hide from?!_  
  
That voice chuckled, and all of a sudden images, memories, assaulted her, one after the other. She cried out mentally and pushed them away, brought the walls up higher.  
  
Still think you're not hiding…..??? The voice sounded entirely too smug.  
  
_All right, dammit! I'm hiding! Go away! It doesn't matter any more! He never cared. If he cared at all, he wouldn't have…_ Wincing, Pan pushed that thought away, wondering at how much pain it brought with it, even after all that time. Surprisingly, the voice was silent, and she was alone, jittery, waiting, once again.  
  
BOOOOOM!!!!  
  
"What the hell?!" That was all Pan got out before she was blown back from an enormous shock wave, unprepared for the sudden attack. Or was it an attack? Pan finally skidded to a stop, then looked up and saw, to her surprise, that the door to the Room of Spirit and Time was open, and her father- _What is he doing here?!_ -was standing there.  
  
It was getting hot, unbearably hot, but at the same time, violent winds unlike anything she'd ever experienced were kicking up. Tornadoes were everywhere and she was caught in one, then passed to another, then another. It was even worse when the gravity kicked it. Pan felt like she was being torn apart- her every limb weighed a hundred tons, but the wind was strong enough to still pick her up and toss her around like she was nothing. The combined effect was feeling like every time she was jerked, the pressure of mountains shifted on her, pain upon pain upon pain.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Her throat was raw from the force of her screams, and the gravity was so high that her lungs were withering, she couldn't get enough air.  
  
She was sweating like crazy in the heat from the heart of a sun, but the perspiration was evaporating before it even fell from her. There was an incredible flash of light and she cried out, trying to shield her eyes, but her arms were too heavy, so she just closed them. Then someone shouted her name and she had to pry her eyes open again.  
  
The entire landscape was unfamiliar. The temple, the whiteness, the tornadoes- all of it had gone awry, twisting into a hideous spiral of fire and light that she was only saved from falling into by the winds that were making her very, very dizzy. Everything was draining into a single point of light so far down and so beautiful that she wanted to laugh at its brightness, if she could get enough air for it. But she didn't want to fall into it, NO! Because going into the light was bad, the light was usually heaven.  
  
Pan was aware that she wasn't thinking straight but she couldn't help it. Her mind was scrambled and she was in too much pain. In the back of her thoughts, she vaguely noted that she'd be going into shock soon, and she wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.  
  
Before that happened, however, before the blessed emptiness, the winds were suddenly, inexplicably gone. She was able to register the thought _holy *shit*_, then she fell, faster and faster, weighted down by all the convenient gravity apparently dragging her to her doom. The light got bigger as she got closer, but she was never aware of reaching it.  
  
In a way similar to how she always woke up before hitting the ground in her falling dreams, she blacked out before she fell into the light. A fuzzy darkness started from the corner of her eyes, and she knew nothing more.  
  
  
  
**************************************************************************** ******  
  
RaliNeoBlade: Well, there you have it!!!!! The sixth chapter of Won't Ever Understand Me!!! YAY! I'm so proud of myself. Anyway, where is Pan going to end up?? (I think you should know.) Will Gohan go totally berserk? Will Pan even survive to find out where she's going? Will she be able to get back home? Will I ever get some more romance in there? Will I ever shut up and get on to the next chapter?!?! Keep watching for the seventh chapter of Won't Ever Understand Me!  
  
Rali: Okay, so I'm hyper. Sue me. Well, I finally got this chapter out, I hope you all enjoy it. I know I enjoyed writing it. It's a bit longer than most, so you should all be happy. REVIEW and tell me what you think, 'K? Kindly RATE this story from 1-10, (10 being the best,) and check out my other stories if you can. Ja ne! 


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